Mac Office 2008 Sneak Peek: Toolbox

If it's every other Tuesday, then it must be time for another look at Mac …

Even the casual user of Mac Office 2004 will be familiar with the Formatting Palette. The one-stop tool for sorting the myriad of options associated with altering text and objects in office documents was a great addition to the UI in Mac Office 2004. Those less familiar with Mac Office 2004 may never have even known about the other palette, also known as the Office Toolbox, which gave access to several utilities: Scrapbook, Compatibility Report, Project Palette, and Reference Tools. Well, never let it be said that there can be too much of a good thing, as the latest e-mail from the Mac BU makes clear.

The Toolbox has been revamped to become a true one-stop destination for some of the most useful tools in Office for Mac. Incorporating the original Office for Mac Toolbox and Formatting Palette into a single UI, this Mac-only feature will continue to give users instant access to the tools they need, including Object Palette, Animation Settings, Citations, and Formula Builder.

Why it was decided to cram more options into a densely-packed UI is something of a mystery, as is the reason the lesser known "toolbox" moniker was used. A badly-compressed demo of the new Toolbox can be found here, but not much is gained compared to high-resolution screenshots and detailed explanations, though a few observations can be made.

Mac Office 2008 and iWork media browsers

First, among the many icons there can now be found a media browser that can access the iPhoto library. Unfortunately, unlike the Media Browser in iWork, it cannot access other types of media, like audio and video. This would be an example of not offering enough options.

Mac Office 2008 and iWork text palettes

An example of perhaps too many options in one place might be the text palette. Not to offend those office users needing ligatures in their document, but does that checkbox really belong there? In contrast, Pages has options spread out a little more and grouped differently. Of course, part of that is because Pages uses a Formatting Toolbar, but still there is a different philosophy at work.

Pages showing multiple palettes

Since widescreen displays are sold across the Mac product line, you would think it might be a good idea to take advantage of that in conjunction with a word processor. Unfortunately, it appears that you still have just one Toolbox with Mac Office 2008, though you can customize it. Of course, you could customize it in Mac Office 2004, but now you "flip" it around like a Dashboard widget and select whether it fades or collapses, and which palettes will be visible in the Toolbox.

Say what you want about the Ribbon UI (I don't like it) in Windows Office, but the harshest critic has to admit that the developers made a bold move in addressing the problem of information overload. In a different way, Apple developers have addressed that issue by offering only those features they think you need with iWork. With Mac Office 2008, it feels more and more like the UI is drifting, a new Elements Gallery, more features crammed into the Toolbox, but no sense of a singular vision mediating between the program and the user. With Mac Office 2008 complete, perhaps someone should ask a basic question about Mac Office 2012.